Introduction

Zoitei is a way of writing phonetically. There are 24 consonants and 12 vowels in Zoitei, making a total of 36 letters (including four sounds that don't exist in English). The name comes from the Zatei constructed language, meaning "magic writing".

Usages

Zoitei can be used for both a way to write in a conlang and for phonetic voice synthesis.

Romanization

Before learning Zoitei, it's easier to learn with the latin alphabet.

There are two variants of the Zoitei Romanization:

ASCII - only uses a-z and space (can use _ in place of space if unavailable)
Unicode - adds ', ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ, č, ǧ, ǩ, ř, š, ž, þ, ŋ (removes q and h)

Consonants

Since there are not 24 ASCII consonants to choose from, the letter 'h' can be used as a consonant modifier where 'sh' would be considered a single letter. The letter 'h' may also be used between two vowels to stand-in for a syllable break.

The consonants are arranged visually, organized by loud / quiet and big / small:

3f	0L	1L	2q	3q
0s	m	p	f	th / þ
1s	n	t	s	sh / š
2s	q / ŋ	k	x	kh / ǩ
3B	l	b	v	w
4B	c	d	z	zh / ž
5B	r	g	rh / ř	gh / ǧ

Some consonant clusters should be written using shorthand:

long	short
dzh	j
tsh	ch / č

Pronunciation

	English word	Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling
m	mean	miyn / mi'n
p	pour	poar / po'r
f	fool	foul / fu'l
th / þ	both	boath / bo'þ
n	no	no
t	to	tu
s	sibling	sibliyq / sibli'ŋ
sh / š	shard	shard / šard
q / ŋ	sing	siyq / si'ŋ
k	card	kard
x	hello	xealo / xe'lo
kh / ǩ	-	-
l	lore	loar / lo'r
b	balance	baelins / by'lins
v	violin	vayoalin / vayo'lin
w	bother	bowyr
c	-	-
d	dance	daens / dy'ns
z	xylophone	zayloafoan / zaylo'fo'n
zh / ž	collage	kialazh / ka'laž
r	rain	reyn
g	grab	graeb / gry'b
rh / ř	-	-
gh	-	-
j	jar	jar
ch / č	chair	cher / čer

Non-American-English Sounds

c sound between 'l' and 'r', clicking 'rl' sound, rolled 'r'
kh / ǩ hard / low-pitched voiced 'h', back of mouth
rh / ř soft / high-pitched voiced 'h', front of mouth
gh / ǧ glottal stop (must be between two vowels, otherwise inaudible)

Vowels

The 12 vowels (counting approximates as vowels) are arranged visually, organized by loud / quiet and big / small:

	loud	quiet
0s	yh / {y}ie	ae / y'
1s	ih	iy / i'
2s	ah	ia / a'
3B	eh	ea / e'
4B	uh / {u}oe	ou / u'
5B	oh	oa / o'

The semivowel / glide vowel for iy / i' is written y- / -y (yeet would be written yiyt) and the semivowel / glide vowel for ou / u' is written u- / -u (swoon would be written suoun).

Vowels written are assumed to be loud by default, unless they are the last letter in a word (or precede a -). To make the last letter in the word loud, follow it with a lone 'h' (syllable break).

ASCII	Unicode	Pronunciation
axa	axa	ah + x + a' (ah-huh)
axah	axah	ah + x + ah (ah-ha)
iaxa	a'xa	a' + x + a' (uh-huh)
iaxah	a'xah	a' + x + ah (a-ha)

Pronunciation

	English word	Zoitei Romanized Phonetic Spelling
ah	car	kar
ia / a'	art	iart / a'rt
ay	cry	kray
ai	light	lait
au	how	xau
ao	out	aot
eh	fair	fer
ea / e'	end	eand / e'nd
ey	stay	stey
ei	(bag)	(beig)
eu	-	-
eo	-	-
ih	finish	finish / finiš
iy / i'	fear	fiyr / fi'r
iu	ew	iu
oh	gone	gon
oa / o'	phone	foan / fo'n
oy	-	-
oi	annoy	ianoi / a'noi
ou / u'	soup	soup / su'p
uh	book	buk
{u}oe	word	uoerd
u-	well	ueal / ue'l
yh	dirt	dyrt
ae / y'	sand	saend / sy'nd
{y}ie	yer	yier
y-	year	yiyr

Note on ("bag")

Depending on accent, it may be pronounced "baeg" / "by'g", "beg", "beyg" or "beig". Due to "ei" being only used in some northern midwest accents, it can be a stand-in when writing English in Zoitei for the speaker's chosen pronunciations.

Similar sounds

"uh" is similar to "yh". To know the difference say the word "wonderful"; written as "uiandyrful" or "ua'ndyrful". "uh" is lower pitched and longer than "yh", and "uh" is closer to the front of the mouth than "yh".

"ei" is similar to "ey". "ey" can be thought of as a more nasal version of "ei", while "ei" is softer. Similarly, "eu" is the more nasal version of "eo", both also similar to "iu" with more emphasis upfront.

"oy" is pronounced closer to "ai" (although one might assume it's closer to "ay"; it is not as the 'oh' sound is replaced with an 'uh' sound), but lower pitched, while "ai" is softer.

Vowels and Syllables

For ASCII, use h to split syllables between vowels. For Unicode, use the diëresis to split vowels. For both, to make the first vowel quiet, use the two-letter spelling.

ASCII	Unicode	Pronunciation
iaheal	iaë'l	a + e'l
iahel	iaël	a + el
aheal	aë'l	ah + e'l
ahel	aël	ah + el
iahe	iaë	a + e
iaheh	iaëh	a + eh
ahe	aë	ah + e
aheh	aëh	ah + eh
ahehoh	aëöh	ah + eh + oh
aheho	aëö	ah + eh + o
aheahoh	aëaöh	ah + e + oh
aheaho	aëaö	ah + e + o
iahehoh	iaëöh	a + eh + oh
iaheho	iaëö	a + eh + o
iaheahoh	iaëaöh	a + e + oh
iaheaho	iaëaö	a + e + o

Punctuation

Writing sentences in Zoitei, requires the punctuation to come first.

English	Zoitei ASCII	Zoitei Unicode
Hello, friend.	:xealo, freand	:Xe'lo, fre'nd
Hey, you!	!xey yu	¡Xey yu
What's up?	?uiats iap	¿Ua'ts a'p

When using unicode, use “ ” (outer) and « » (inner) for quotation marks, otherwise " (outer) and ` (inner).

:ay toald weam, ":its kald `zoitei (maejik raitiyq)`, ?xaev yu hyrd uv it"
:Ay to'ld we'm, “:Its kald «zoitei (my'jik raiti'ŋ)», ¿xy'v yu hyrd uv it”

English	Zoitei ASCII	Zoitei Unicode
Them; you, and me.	:weam; yu, aend mi	:We'm; yu, y'nd mi
This: my enemy.	:wis. may eaneami	:Wis. may e'ne'mi

Elongation

All words can be written with any number of consecutive vowels or consonants and still be correct. For instance, the English word ladder:

laedyr / ly'dyr (no specific emphasis when spoken)
laeddyr / ly'ddyr (emphasize the 'd' sound)
laedddyr / ly'dddyr (really emphasize the 'd' sound)
laeedyr (drawn out 'a' sound)
laeeedyr (really drawn out 'a' sound)
laedyrr / ly'dyrr (drawn out 'r' sound)
laedyrrr / ly'dyrrr (really drawn out 'r' sound)
ly'dieer (drawn out 'e' sound)
ly'dieeer (really drawn out 'e' sound)

This can be useful for indicating tone. The vowels with must be written in their two letter form if they have one.

Script

TODO